Why Waleed Aly is one of Australia's most influential voices

Jessica Gardner

Months ago, Waleed Aly began pondering the sad fact that not much of substance goes viral.

Slapstick? Sure. Controversy? Certainly. Outrage? Most definitely.

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But the things that really fire up the internet are "very rarely rich concepts", he says. "Virtues very rarely go viral."

The kernel of an idea formed: what if you could send forgiveness viral? For a while he worried he'd never find a hook with which to embed such a high ideal into the minds of the almost 1 million, mostly 20- to 40-year-olds who tune in each night to The Project, the Network Ten show he co-hosts.

Waleed Aly topped The AFR Magazine's Cultural Power List 2016. Photo: Penny Stephens

Then along came Sonia Kruger. The breakfast television host blew up the internet one Monday in July after espousing her view that immigration of Muslims should be stopped so that she could "feel safe". Progressives were outraged, deriding her use of a privileged position to demonise an entire section of society. Conservatives were equally outraged, arguing that the political correctness police were coming to arrest poor Sonia. The whole thing quickly descended down the gurgler of what passes for discourse.

But by 6.30pm the following night, Aly had a new take on the issue – one that would go on to be viewed by 11 million Facebook users and be shared about 190,000 times. Instead of piling onto Kruger, calling her racist and picking apart her argument, he suggested people take a moment to consider her fears and those of others, and come back with "radical generosity in the face of their hostility, even when it hurts".

The following day, with the online response to Aly's notion at 4 million and counting, a panel of business and political leaders seated around the Fairfax Media boardroom table voted the 38-year-old the country's most culturally powerful person in The Australian Financial Review Magazine's annual list.

"It is political commentary as entertainment, but it's reaching young people in a way that a lot of other things and people don't," says Ben Oquist, executive director of The Australia Institute and a former Greens chief of staff. "In the context of the debate about racism, Islam and Muslims, he's a hugely powerful voice at the moment."

Not alone: Sonia Kruger came under heavy criticism in July when she said she wanted a ban on Muslim migration to Australia. Photo: Channel Nine

Katrina Sedgwick, the former ABC TV executive who now runs the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne, agrees. "He's a highly intelligent, very entertaining commentator who has an incredibly powerful platform speaking to the 20- to 40-year-old demographic, who are really difficult to get to," she says. "It's mostly quite light entertainment and then every now and then he absolutely nails it with a two- or three-minute diatribe that's very, very effective and powerful."

Like Charlie Pickering, whom he replaced at the start of 2015 as a regular host on The Project, Aly started his working life as a lawyer. When he left the field in 2007 he already had a name for himself as head of public affairs at the Islamic Council of Victoria, plus a Walkley commendation for commentary under his belt. Over the years the father of two has held various public-facing roles, working not only as a television panellist but as a columnist for Fairfax Media, an ABC radio presenter, a politics lecturer at Monash University and a part-time comedian. In May this year he won the Gold Logie, TV's most popular personality award.

Aly resonates strongly with his audience due to a combination of style – calm, sensible, accessible – and substance, dealing as he does with complex, often vexed issues. His three most popular pieces of commentary in the past year are instructive in this regard. "ISIL is Weak" quelled fear in the wake of the Paris attacks by building an argument out of the terrorist group's own propaganda. "Send Forgiveness Viral" was a Muslim man's response to Kruger's fears, pitched in a way that would stem the flood of abuse she was copping. And "Milked Dry" tapped into the plight of dairy farmers and called on shoppers to reject cheap private label milk and cheese.

"He is not afraid to stand up and say publicly what we're all thinking," observes Nicola Wakefield Evans, a director at Bupa, Toll Holdings, Macquarie Group and Lendlease. "He's not afraid to call out bad behaviour, nor wrong behaviour. On the positive side, he's a passionate advocate for a whole lot of causes as well."

Pillars of Power

The Australian Financial Review Magazine has selected the country's most powerful for the past 20 years.

The three main lists are Overt, Covert and Cultural Power. All were released today.

This year Malcolm Turnbull was voted the most powerful person in the country and his opposition, Labor Leader Bill Shorten got the second spot.

Barnaby Joyce, Mike Baird and 'The Regulators', which include the Reserve Bank of Australia, rounded out the top five on the Overt List 2016.

Arthur Sinodinos is at the top of the Covert Power List 2016, followed by Martin Parkinson, Lucy Turnbull, Sally Cray and Fiona Nash.

Jessica Gardner is The Australian Financial Review's Companies and Markets deputy editor.

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